It must be something of a nightmare for a well-known public figure – Stephen Fry, say – to be trapped in a lift with five other people, and then to find his discomfort broadcast minute by minute to thousands of people in the outside world via computer. To worsen the assault on Fry’s privacy, a… Continue reading You don’t have to be a twit… but it helps
Read moreOne would think, in these money-obsessed times, that there would be a more consistent attitude to financial greed and its relationship to morality and happiness. Instead, a weird double- standard has taken hold. Bankers, it is agreed, have been foolish and irresponsible. City types who take bonuses while their firms make losses are beyond contempt.… Continue reading The Lottery must share the blame
Read moreJohn Updike once wrote that a person’s collection of books comes to symbolise the contents of his mind. “Books preserve, daintily, the redolence of their first reading – this beach, that apartment, that attack of croup. This flight to Indonesia.” By an unhappy coincidence, I heard the news of Updike’s death while I was re-arranging… Continue reading Updike’s work outsmarts his critics
Read moreIt has already been a year of surprises, not all of them unpleasant. A world leader has dared to tell his people that it is time for them to grow up. Bankers have suddenly developed an interest in socialism. The BBC has refused to be bullied by the media. Best of all, the one sector… Continue reading Live music must be allowed to thrive
Read moreWhat, at the end of one of the most momentous weeks in modern history, will dominate the news this weekend? The progress of the first black president of the United States? The meltdown in our banking system? Almost certainly both stories will give way to coverage of another event – the return to work of… Continue reading The serious lessons in a trivial matter
Read moreWhen it comes to the age-old question of men and women, their relative strengths and weaknesses, a strange species of madness seems to have recently taken hold. Everywhere, not only in the media but also in academic and political life, the complexities of gender have been ironed out, reduced to a series of reassuring but… Continue reading Gender wars and unspoken words
Read moreThe opening of Australia across Australia was quite an event. At local cinemas, there were premieres for Baz Luhrmann’s film, with red carpets and audiences of A-list dignitaries from the area. Despite an undeserved mauling by the Australian critics, it still seems to be doing good business weeks later. In the town of Albury in… Continue reading Myth and reality in the Outback
Read moreWhat word would you use to capture the mood of the country as 2008 draws to a close? Crunch? Crisis? Corrupt? Sachsgate? Each of these is rather too specific. Perhaps the most telling verbal tag to attach to the spirit of Britain at the end of this year lies in the simple word “no”. Even… Continue reading We live in a cynical age. And technology is making it worse
Read moreThe little-known prediction website OldBoresAlmanac.com has had a reasonably successful 2008 with only one forecast (“There will be dancing on the streets of the market-place”) proving to be completely wide of the mark. So what does Old Bore predict for the coming year? January The return of Jonathan Ross to the nation’s TV screens dominates… Continue reading A conflict foretold: when the generation war turns nasty
Read moreIt is a difficult week for those of us of little faith. At every turn, there are songs in the air about certain poor shepherds, the angelic host proclaiming, the mother mild, the wondrous childhood all deep and crisp and even, and so on. It would be unfair to compare this assault of carols to… Continue reading It’s enough to make you believe in God
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